Martín Arias is a first-generation Mexican American, San Diego native, public servant, and Democratic candidate for Member, California State Board of Equalization, 4th District in the June 2, 2026 primary. He currently serves as Taxpayer Advocate at the San Diego County Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk’s Office — the only candidate in the race who has worked directly inside a county assessor’s office as a certified taxpayer advocate. He is endorsed by CAL FIRE Local 2881, which has called him “the only qualified candidate and certified expert by the State Board of Equalization that Firefighters trust.”
Born and raised in San Diego, Martín is inspired by his parents’ courageous immigration journey. He is a graduate of San Diego State University and a father of two. Before his current role in the Assessor’s office, Arias built a career in public safety and community services at the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, serving as Crime Prevention Specialist (2016–2021), Assistant Director of Prevention and Intervention Programs (2021–2023), and Director of Prevention and Intervention Programs (2023–2024). He serves on the USS Midway Museum and YMCA leadership boards and is an active community leader across San Diego County.
As Taxpayer Advocate in the San Diego County Assessor’s Office, Arias works directly with the Board of Equalization on a daily basis — advising homeowners, seniors, veterans, small businesses, and wildfire survivors on how to access property tax relief programs and resolve disputes. He has saved homeowners $31.8 million, seniors $5.7 million, disabled veterans $36.8 million, and churches, nonprofits, affordable housing providers, small businesses, and renters $228 million in tax relief. He also helped San Diego County veterans save over $35 million in property taxes. He has been on the front lines of county emergency response, helping flood and fire survivors rebuild with targeted property tax relief. He says he has “a front seat to how the system works” and believes “there’s a bigger opportunity here to make the Board of Equalization the constitutional office that it is — advocating at the state level for all of our taxpayers, including those that don’t speak English.”
Endorsements
CAL FIRE Local 2881, California State Board of Equalization Member Tony Vazquez, California Latino Legislative Caucus (senators and assemblymembers), and community leaders from San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Imperial, and San Bernardino counties. A full list is available on his campaign website.
Reputation/Scandals/Successes
Core Strengths and Positive Reputation
- Only Candidate With Direct Assessor-Office and BOE Experience: Arias frames himself as the only candidate who has worked “directly as a taxpayer advocate, inside a county assessor’s office” — a claim his opponents cannot match. In a race for an office whose core function is overseeing county assessors and hearing property tax appeals, this daily, frontline experience with the actual work of the BOE is his strongest distinguishing qualification. He works with the Board of Equalization every day in his current role, giving him institutional familiarity that legislative backgrounds or school board service do not provide.
- Documented Track Record of Taxpayer Relief: Arias’s record is unusually concrete for a candidate at this level of government. The specific dollar figures in his official voter guide statement — $31.8 million saved for homeowners, $36.8 million for disabled veterans, $228 million for nonprofits and affordable housing — are drawn from his actual casework and program administration, not campaign promises. The CAL FIRE Local 2881 endorsement, citing his “strong record of protecting wildfire survivors from unfair property taxes,” adds credible third-party validation of his real-world impact.
- Bilingual Taxpayer Advocacy and Community Access: Arias’s emphasis on bilingual community presentations and outreach to Spanish-speaking homeowners and renters addresses one of the BOE’s genuine gaps — many of the taxpayers most affected by property tax inequities are non-English-speaking immigrants who have historically lacked access to relief programs. His personal background as the son of Mexican immigrants gives this commitment authentic roots that cannot be easily replicated by other candidates.
- Clean-Money Campaign: Arias’s campaign has raised $265,106 and is not funded by law enforcement, fossil fuel, real estate, or corporate donors — a pledge that insulates him from certain lines of attack and signals independence from the special interests most likely to have business before the Board of Equalization, including large utilities and railroads whose property valuations the BOE sets.
- Grassroots Geographic Coalition Across All Four District Counties: His endorsement coalition spans community leaders from all four counties in the district — San Diego, Orange, Riverside, and Imperial — and includes the sitting BOE member from the district (Tony Vazquez) and the California Latino Legislative Caucus. This cross-county reach is significant in a district covering nearly 9 million people across a geographically diverse region.
Criticisms and Vulnerabilities
- Lower Name Recognition and Fundraising Than Leading Competitors: At $265,106 raised, Arias trails the field’s institutional frontrunners significantly. Tom Umberg enters the race with a decades-long statewide political profile built across Assembly, Senate, and federal service, and the fundraising infrastructure that goes with it. In a low-turnout, low-information primary for a down-ballot office that most California voters have never heard of, name recognition and the paid media it buys often determine who advances — a structural challenge for a candidate without prior elected office experience.
- No Prior Elected Office Experience: While Arias’s assessor-office background is directly relevant to the BOE’s core functions, he has never been elected to any public office — unlike Umberg (Assembly, Senate), Petterson (school board), or Bilodeau (water district). In a race where voters have limited information and rely heavily on name recognition, prior electoral experience matters both as a proxy for governing competence and as a signal of community validation.
- San Diego-Centric Profile in a Four-County District: Arias’s entire professional career has been based in San Diego County — his assessor’s office role, his DA office positions, his board memberships. While he has assembled endorsements across the district’s four counties, his name recognition and on-the-ground organizing strength outside San Diego — particularly in Orange County, the district’s largest county by voter registration — is less established than that of Orange County-based Tom Umberg, who represents parts of northern OC in the State Senate.
- Three-Way Democratic Vote Split: With three Democrats in the race, the risk of vote-splitting is real. The 2022 BOE District 4 primary — in which Republican Denis Bilodeau ran previously, finishing third — showed how a fragmented field can produce unexpected outcomes. If Arias, Petterson, and Umberg divide the Democratic vote roughly equally, Bilodeau could potentially slip into the top two despite the district’s Democratic lean.
Campaign Contributors
Arias’s campaign has raised more than $235K and does not accept contributions from law enforcement, fossil fuel, real estate, or corporate donors. Full contributor details are available at Transparency USA.
